Theory of Percussion
by Strike the Dirge
Summary: Sasuke and Neji have become much too good at getting what they want. AU, shounen-ai/yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

_Sasuke and Neji have become much too good at getting what they want._

Takes place during Shippuuden.

Warnings: AU, very likely OOC personalities, homosexual or homoerotic situations, violence, possible blood and gore, probable slow updates, offensive language (cursing and name-calling).

Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters belong to its creator, whose name I'm too lazy to look up. This writing and plot belong to me.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke stares. The bundle at his feet twitches, but with the double effects of a well-managed sharingan and a few aptly-placed seals, the body inside the canvas bag can do little more than stir impotently.

"It's been a while," he says finally, experimenting.

The bag freezes, then shifts slowly, not replying. The corners of Sasuke's mouth dimple as his lips thin tautly. His eyes suddenly flash up to the other cloaked figures in the room, throbbing red.

"**Out.**"

They vanish swiftly, like frightened wraiths, until Sasuke is alone with the now weakly-struggling body. He frowns down at it, brows growing increasingly closer to each other in frustration as the silence drags on, until finally he takes a fistful of the canvas in his hand and rips it back down to the chest of the body inside, the sundered seals crackling.

-A pause.

"...-You... Where. _Where is she._" It's ferocious, that tone of voice, _vicious_, and the rumpled body staring up at him knows at once it's not a question- it is a demand.

"If you mean Sakura Haruno, not here, clearly."

Fingers twist into long, loose twines of soft dark brown hair and rip. A few strands come away in his clutched fist, but his captive offers nothing but a slight flinch of one ghostly eye, lips stubbornly pursed. Sasuke growls and his sharingan flares to life in a fireworks display of violent reds and racing blacks in the dark night sky of his eyes.

"_Where,_" and this time his tone implies that any fucking around will earn the crumpled form on the floor an unhealthy dose of chidori in sensitive areas.

"On her way back to Konoha, I imagine, if not there already."

The cold black tomoe swirl in the wild fire of his sharingan- but then there is a pause in that fury- a thoughtful, dangerous pause that makes his captive stir in alarm for the first time. Sasuke's taut fist relaxes, and even as the ripped-out strands are drifting to the floor, his fingers are sliding back into that thick head of soft hair, tipping back the head as he steps closer, until those big eyes stare apathetically up at his cooly-narrowed calculating black from a craned white throat.

"Your house has a medic-nin, does it not? And would you, who watch her so closely, not then have observed her methods for yourself..? Perhaps this was not such a loss, after all..."

"...You're asking me to be your medic-nin?"

The curl of Sasuke Uchiha's lips is like a scythe.

"I'm not asking."

The remaining exchange between the captive and captor is little more than a one-sided altercation, the latter being already firmly decided on the matter and former having neither the position nor currently the power to oppose him. Sasuke sweeps from the room in worryingly high spirits, and Neji Hyuuga watches him leave with increasing frustration and unease.


	2. Chapter 2

I feel I should warn you guys that updates will not always be this fast- I only wish I could be that dedicated. Unfortunately I have this silly thing called a Life, and every once in a while it demands that I do things. It's kind of a bitch that way. EDIT: Okay, well, that was written when I wrote most of this chapter, which was the day after I posted the first chapter. Unfortunately, because Life is a bitch, my brain ended up being horribly abused and there was mind-rape and Barney the Dinosaur and all sorts of emotionally-scarring things, so I didn't manage to finish it until tonight. Sorry, I'll try to be better and get these things done when I tell myself they will be.

This chapter is dedicated to **Hanai-kun**, **SouthParkfan2**, and **NejiDemon** who were so quick and so kind as to very gently and diplomatically review that ridiculous excuse for a prologue.

Hanai-kun: Yes, well, you know how interchangeable those words are. I'm always mixing them up, personally. "Medic-nin", "sex slave", "sex slave", "medic-nin"... Thank you so much for that wonderful review, and for reviewing at all! You really made my day- I hope you enjoy this chapter!

SouthParkfan2: Thanks a lot! I hope I can keep up the quick updates, but I'm lazy and a college student, so we'll see. XD Thanks for the review, and I hope you like the new chapter!

NejiDemon: I know what you mean about the OOC thing with Neji as an uke- but then again, Sasuke can have the same problem. What I (hope) to achieve with mine is not so much an uke/seme relationship as just... Sasuke and Neji as they are, powerplays and ego and pride and all, because that's why we love them. I'm working pretty hard on trying to keep them in character, so I'm delighted to hear someone else express what I think about that whole uke-OOC-ness whenever I read one of those stories. XD Thank you so much for the interest and the review! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

-------------------------------------------------

By the time Sasuke deigns to come back to the cramped little stone room, Neji has managed to worm his way out of his chakra-suppressing cocoon of seals and canvas and is sitting against the wall opposite the door, panting a little and staring expectantly. Sasuke has no doubt that those eyes- falcon-sharp even without chakra- have already taken in every detail (_'every weakness,'_ though of course with Sasuke there are none) of his makeshift prison.

"Made yourself comfortable?" he purrs, and his mouth slinks into a smile like his feet slink toward the cool, tensed figure- a panther flashing straight white teeth and stepping on silent, dangerous feet. Neji's expression doesn't change, but his finger- _that one right there_- twitches, and Sasuke's eyes narrow with the glee of that small victory. Neji is not the only one who misses nothing.

"For you," he continues in a pleasant tone that makes Neji's flesh crawl, and holds out the bundle in his arms casually. "Change." An order, and the Hyuuga wonders briefly if it is farce or simple use that makes Sasuke so capable of sounding boredly bland when making commands. The long pale fingers drop the clothing in his lap, and Neji observes them without moving.

"I refuse."

But Sasuke's face doesn't change, and his eyes don't shift from where they rest on the empty stone wall, his only movement an absent-minded itching of his throat. Neji wishes he would scratch himself on those blunt nails, but of course he doesn't.

"Change."

"I refu-"

"-Or I will do it for you."

The glitter of his eyes as they slide down to him tells Neji that he will. He changes. Grudgingly.

And slowly (not _just_ because his body was sluggish from chakra loss), but Sasuke seats himself on the single wooden bed in the room and waits with all the patience of a cat on a sunny window sill, charcoal eyes slitted and observing. Shirt, pants, undergarments come off, a different pair come on.

"You're forgetting something," Sasuke breathes instantly, and there's no need for the customary pause of _'I'm done'_-ness, because he knew Neji would leave that part.

"I ref-"

"Say you were forced."

For the first time, Neji's eyes jump up to Sasuke's face in notable surprise. Almost palpable surprise. It makes Sasuke's insides squirm with self-satisfied pleasure, that rare look.

"That's what you were worried about, isn't it." Sasuke, Neji is learning quickly, is not good at asking questions (though this does _not_ surprise him). "What Konoha will say when they see you returning in an Akatsuki cloak. You don't really care about it personally- to you such a thing would be trivial. 'Does it impede my fighting or improve it' is all you ask yourself when you look in your closet." The total airy, dismissive confidence with which the Uchiha states all of this makes Neji want put a Gentle Fist through that Cheshire smile. But there is something else that bothers him even more than Sasuke's assholic tendency toward egoism: he's right.

"So I'll indulge you in this fantasy that such a situation will ever come up. Tell them I forced you- you can add as many gruesome details as you like. I'm sure _you_ would be able to conjure up a situation any of them would swallow."

While Neji watches those vicious lips curl upwards at the corners, he wonders warily at the stress on the word _'you'_, as if somehow Neji Hyuuga would know Sasuke Uchiha better than most. As if somehow-

"-I'm not like you." He doesn't know why he says it, and he regrets it instantly, because the instant it's out of his mouth he knows it's exactly what the Uchiha was waiting for. But to his surprise, Sasuke stares at him blankly.

"I didn't say you were, though now that you mention it, we do have quite a few similarities." The last bit is tacked on almost whimsically, on the off chance Neji will take the bait and let out another outburst, but he doesn't and Sasuke isn't surprised or disappointed.

There is a long, silent pause as they both stare at each other, but it's not one of tension or a chance to size each other up- it's simply a break in the conversation. Neither has anything left to add to the situation, nor the inclination to attempt small-talk to keep the echoing quiet at bay, and they both know that Sasuke has won.

"Put it on, Neji," he says, this time in a voice that would be gentle if it weren't a smiling panther saying the words. Neji tells himself it's the shock of hearing the Uchiha say his name- his _given _name- that makes him comply obediently and without further argument, but he knows the real reason is that Sasuke was right, as he so damnably often seemed to be. The red clouds, he notes dispassionately, make his skin look waxy and dead.

"This might impede my fighting," he says finally, a last and hopeless act of defiance. To his surprise, the Uchiha throws back his head and laughs, and though the sound is quiet, it fills the room with his smoky-voiced timbre. Neji thinks back to that emphasized _'you'_ and decides that he really doesn't know Sasuke at all.

---

Sasuke's moods are a thing Neji has never understood, and as their eyes glare into each other from across the table, Neji has difficulty seeing himself ever understanding.

"_Give it to me._"

"**No.**"

Sasuke growls- a low, deep, thrumming sound, like a rainstorm. His fingers spasm, then curl, clawlike, into the palm he has held out face-up to the Hyuuga.

"Then I'll take it!"

His fist hits the table, making the half-empty plate jump and their cups spill across the wood, and it would be childish if they both didn't know just exactly what those fists could do if Sasuke so desired. Neji stares back with a hard-lipped frown, brows drawn tight and face stony. Despite all this, the haze of his white eyes is still like getting lost in a numbing white fog; intangible, unreadable, and inescapable. It only infuriates Sasuke more. In the space between one blink and the next, Sasuke's fingers have closed on a clump of Neji's hair, still loose from its tie, knuckles just brushing the metal of his headband. Both now stand a few feet back from the table, Neji half-crouched with one hand clamped around Sasuke's wrist, the other held equally tight in the Uchiha's other palm a few inches from Sasuke's black-clad stomach under the flaring cloak. In comparison, it takes an achingly long time for Neji's chair to hit the floor.

A long stretch of silence follows this, neither moving. Then, suddenly, Sasuke's hand loosens on Neji's hair, the silky ends sifting through his fingers like water. When the last brown hair falls into place, they release each other and back away, circling until Neji stands by his fallen chair and Sasuke stands poised by the doorway.

"-Fine," he says suddenly, and Neji almost, _almost_ flinches.

"Fine," the Uchiha repeats, and turns, storming from the kitchen with a dramatic flare of his stormy black cloak. Neji stares after him, wary and confused now, and has just begun to step toward the still-open door when Sasuke marches back through it, nearly mowing him down. He retreats quickly, and this time does flinch slightly when the dark-haired boy throws something at him, which flutters ineffectually between them until Neji reaches out and grabs it. A thin, delicate scarf. It drapes over his hand and comes to rest, loosely hugging the curves of his palm like silk sheets on a naked body. When he looks back up, Sasuke has that superior, prowling smirk on his face again, though his eyes are still hard and angry.

"I'll look away while you change," he sneers mockingly, and makes a show of closing his eyes and turning to face the wall. Neji grits his teeth.

"...-Fine," he spits back finally, far too late, and reaches under his hair for the knot. Almost the instant the headband hits the table, it's in Sasuke's hand and he's once again disappearing out the door (Neji almost thinks with a cocky, victorious step, but no, that must be his imagination), leaving Neji to fumble with the ends of the scarf. He's just tightening it under his hair when the Uchiha reappears, and forces his face into impassivity as the dark eyes sweep him over once and narrow in that feline grin.

"Much better.

Being one of mine suits you."

There is a tense silence while Neji Hyuuga clenches his fist and wishes, _wishes dammit dammit_ that his chakra was replenished, because even if he couldn't win he _might_ be able to wipe that curly smile from the Uchiha's lips before he was chidori-ed into a million pieces, and it would almost be_ worth_ it.

---

"You're being too rough. You're not trying to dismember him with your chakra, Hyuuga."

Neji clenches his jaw and attempts to soften the flow of chakra into the cut on the marble-still body beneath his hands. When Sasuke had first led him into a sparse, clean room with one of his cloaked and faceless Akatsuki sitting on a table and told him he would be practicing his medic skills here, Neji had partially expected it and thought that it sounded like a very good idea- a much better one than having Sasuke decide he was worthless when in a more pressing situation. What he had not expected was for Sasuke to then approach his underling and casually and swiftly stab him in the gut with a kunai. The bare-chested man hadn't even twitched, and allowed Sasuke to push him over onto his back on the table like a living doll.

"Fix it," Sasuke had said, and then slid back to hover in the back of the room, where he has been since, observing and remarking often on how well Neji is displaying his proficiency for letting people die on him while never offering anything even vaguely constructive. Needless to say, Neji is not in a good mood as he attempts for the who-knows-what time (he stopped torturing himself with counting after he hit thirty) to make his chakra meld with the man's and pull the skin together.

"No, no," comes the Uchiha's sigh. "The internal organs first. I would have expected more from a Hyuuga. Are you even trying? Perhaps I really did make a poor decision."

If Neji didn't know the consequences of doing so, he would agree. Instead, he breathes in deeply, feeling the chakra contract into his core and swell with his lungs, and breathes out slowly and calmly, controlling the release down his arms and into his palms and fingers, moving them neatly over the wound. This time, the man's chakra is caught up in the more controlled flow and moves with him. Slowly- achingly, _impossibly_ slowly- his innards begin to heal. By the time all but the epidermis is left, Neji is sweating and breathing less steadily. His chakra- already badly depleted- is now all but gone, and for the last few... minutes? hours? he has been fighting off fuzziness closing in at the edges of his vision. He wipes the sweat from his brow, feeling Uchiha's black eyes burning into him, and puts his shaking hands back over the wound. Sasuke, oddly enough, has been silent for some time now, merely watching- if those smouldering eyes can ever _merely_ do anything. The skin here, though much less delicate, is thick and difficult to heal, and it takes Neji almost twice as long to seal, but finally he's managed it, and almost before he has a chance to straighten his cramping back, Sasuke is bending over the other side of the table, observing his handiwork as if blandly scrutinizing a new weapon for defects.

"Well," he says finally, "it'll do. Tomorrow you'll heal the scar tissue you left. I'm not going to be riddled with marks because of your incompetence."

If Neji had the energy, he would glare. Instead, it's all he can do to make it to the single chair in the room before collapsing into it, breathing hard and slumping in a most un-Hyuuga-like way. He doesn't notice his impromptu 'patient' leaving, and is barely aware of Sasuke until long pale fingers are at the collar of his cloak, tugging open the snaps and letting the air reach more of his sweat-slick skin. The fingers keep working until the entire cloak is open, but Neji is unconscious before Sasuke reaches his navel, and the last thing he sees is that self-satisfied cat-smile. Somehow, it isn't as annoying this time.

And then there is nothing.

---------------------------------------

Another note: The first illustration for ToP will be up in my profile soon, so be on the lookout for it.


	3. Chapter 3

Heeey guuuuys. Yup, still alive. I took a brief break from ToP to deal with some illness, schoolwork, and holiday/birthday stuff, but now I have returned, and so have Neji and Sasuke.

This chapter, of course, is dedicated to all the people who have commented and/or faved and/or watched Theory of Percussion, especially **NejiDemon** and **PsychoticMidnight**.

NejiDemon: Ohohoho, you're reading my mind. I feel much the same way- it's so disheartening looking for a good Neji and/or Sasuke boys' love fiction, because they really do tend to waaay over-dramatize the uke thing. And you know, it's not that I have a problem with the seme and uke ROLES- just with using those roles as absolute and defining personalities for the characters. He is uke, therefore he is frail and feminine. He is seme, therefore he is tough and mean. Originality, anyone? With ToP, I'm not actually shooting for "roles", at all, but to depict an actual relationship between two young men of pretty much equal stubbornness and ego whom fate has (prematurely?) thrown together. Sasuke does tend to seem like the more dominant of the pair, but considering his current position of power, it's only natural. Were Sasuke helpless and Neji in total control, the roles and actions of each would shift, as well. I guess what I mean to say is that positions in bed will by no means affect the way these two will be portrayed in ToP. I hear you all the way.

PsychoticMidnight: Thanks so much, both for the praise and the comment! Oh, you won't have to worry about that- once he has the stamina back to do so wisely (meaning he's strong enough it won't be suicide anymore), Neji fully intends not to give Sasuke an inch without a good fight. "Willing" is a word both boys seem to have trouble with, all right. Thanks again, and I hope you like the new chapter!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is not the room he was in before. Of that Neji is sure.

For one thing, this room smells of some sort of faint incense, not the tang of sterile cleaners and freshly-scrubbed metal. For another, he is on a bed.

He knows he's on a bed, because he's lying flat on his back on a comfortable, soft surface. And because someone is lying beside him. Both of those things would be impossible in the small and painful chair from the medical room. So then. Where _is_ he? What time is it? Where- and then Neji notices for the first time that his- no, that _Sasuke's _cloak (because Neji does not own an Akatsuki cloak) is gone, and feels a sudden and instantaneous thrill of both fear and excitement. What will Sasuke do when he discovers it's gone? But then the split-second passes, and Neji is calm again (though for some reason his muscles don't quite relax as much as they should). Finally and most importantly, where is the Uchiha?

Neji tests his strength, pressing his elbows into the cushion of the mattress to hoist himself up. He's pleased to find his body responding without much delay and no pain at all beyond a slight ache in his shoulders- natural after working so hard when already exhausted. Next, the Hyuuga assesses the situation, looking up to stare around the room- but the bed he's on is draped on all sides with gauzy dark curtains, and in the dim candlelight even his powerful eyes can see very little. But there is one thing he can see very clearly; Sasuke Uchiha, stretched supine and dangerous beside him on the bed. His eyes are closed, and his breathing comes slow and even under the dark shirt. He, too, is without his Akatsuki cloak.

For a crazed moment, Neji wonders if he's sleeping.

For an even crazier one, he wonders if he can kill him before he wakes up and returns the favour.

His fingers twitch.

"Good morning. Or rather, 'good night'. You were out for so long I was beginning to wonder if you'd gone and fallen into a coma to avoid me." Sasuke's eyes never open, and his lips barely part to form the words, though they come out at such a normal volume next to the tomb-silence of the room that Neji has to suppress a startled jump. He finds his chin jutting petulantly up a little at the slight curl of one of the corners of the Uchiha's mouth.

"I had always imagined the great Sasuke Uchiha would be more patient than that, but I suppose abandoning Konoha and everyone in it for Orochimaru's training should've given me a hint."

The smile's gone now, and while this should make Neji feel victorious, instead he feels wary. Uchiha's eyes open, already fixed on Neji as if he had been watching him with his lids lowered, and there's a look in them that the Hyuuga doesn't recognize. If Neji didn't know better (and he's learning better all the time, it seems), he would almost say that Sasuke seemed to be giving him something, as if Neji had reached too high and won a victory he didn't want. It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, that silent stare.

"Missed me, did you?" The feline smile is back, but the look in his eyes still doesn't fit.

"Missed Naruto being able to shut up about you."

The pale lips twitch, and then suddenly Sasuke's fingers are tangled roughly in the hair at the back of Neji's head, and he can feel them hooking under the knot of the scarf, making it shift. Neji reaches up to grab it and hold it in place, and during the distraction Sasuke has pulled him close.

"Your chakra should be replenished by now." His voice is lower, deeper, rumbling into the empty spaces of Neji's body and making him quiver with the echoes of dangerous lips a bare few inches from his face. Sasuke's free hand slides the dark shirt up his own stomach, and as the soft fabric rises, the Uchiha's nails gouge angry, bloody red lines up his pallid and muscled belly.

"...Fix it," he says, and though his voice is husky and rough, his eyes are wide and black and unblinking, staring up at Neji, and they say the same thing but in a wild and almost _helpless_ plea, and suddenly the Hyuuga begins to wonder just what he's asking him to fix. Neji's hand settles over the scratches before he can stop himself.

It's easier this time- much, much easier. It comes almost naturally now, that melding of his chakra into Sasuke's and the mending of the flesh. Rest and knowledge, it seems, have made all the difference, and within moments the skin beneath Neji's hand is silky and seamless, if smeared with a little leftover blood. The brown-haired Hyuuga leaves his palm there, staring into the black eyes that are staring right back, and though the plea is gone from them, there's still something- a lowering of walls behind those eyes, some barrier missing that made and kept the distance between them. Safe distance, he thinks.

It would be so easy, _so easy_ to plant a Gentle Fist right into Sasuke's gut right now. Fragile internal organs pulse with life and chakra right beneath his fingertips. He can feel his own chakra welling down his arm in anticipation of the blow- a single shot a little lower and to the side would hit the aorta and cause major internal bleeding. Sasuke would never be able to mend it in time with whatever spare knowledge of medical ninjutsu he had. Neji would be gone before he could work up a Chidori or reach for a weapon.

Just one hit, and he'd be on his way home. Naruto would understand. He'd scream and hit and curse and flail but eventually he'd realize that there had been no other choice, that Neji had done what anyone else in his situation would've, and he'd forgive him. Sakura... Sakura would regret and remember and perhaps even weep, but she would never blame him. She'd understand. Kakashi was a sensible man, and though Neji didn't know him well, he was sure that he'd simply come to terms with the fact that that was the inevitable end of most rogue ninjas and be done with it.

"-Dammit."

The sudden oath draws Neji back to the present, and he blinks cautiously down at Sasuke, whose brow has furrowed and eyes narrowed.

"What are you thinking," he demands almost angrily, and Neji is so startled by the sudden change of mood that he doesn't reply. Sasuke's teeth flash as they grit in frustration, his fingers tightening in Neji's dark hair. "Tell me!"

"-I was thinking how easy it would be to shove some chakra into your liver and kill you, and how your friends would forgive me. Narut-"

Sasuke's mouth is as hot and demanding as his sudden temper, and Neji is surprised to find that the Uchiha _is_ clumsy at some things. When the black-haired boy (_'And he is just a boy, isn't he,' _Neji finds himself thinking now) pulls back, the Hyuuga is still dumbstruck enough for speech to be beyond him. Somehow, for some reason, Sasuke Uchiha- the Ice Prince, lady-killer, and child prodigy- has just kissed him, and kissed him quite poorly. He wants to laugh, but his larynx is too tight. Sasuke stares at him from under his lashes, eyes burning with something very much akin to defensiveness, which makes Neji wonder just what his expression looks like- he wishes he had a mirror.

"-What in the name of Hell-"

"Stop saying his name. The dead-last. I don't want to hear the sound of it anymore- it annoys me."

"...You-"

"-It was the first thing to stop you that came to mind."

Somewhere in the parts of his mind that are still neither misfiring nor laughing it up at the sheer absurdity, Neji takes note that Sasuke's voice and expression become progressively stonier when faced with a potentially horrifically-embarrassing situation.

"Why do you talk about him so much, anyway? I thought you hated him."

Now the Hyuuga's just getting confused. Sasuke looks away, idly scratching his cheek with the hand not still entangled in Neji's hair as if bored with the whole situation, but when Neji fails once again to immediately respond, he speaks again with less boredom and more impatience in his tone (still, however, not looking at him).

"Well?"

"-What? Oh, Nar-" Neji catches himself as those dark eyes shoot back up to his face and the hot fingers against his scalp tighten. "-Well. To be brutally blunt-" and Neji wants to be brutal, now; he's over whatever confused sort of muddled sympathy Sasuke's stare had evoked in him- "I have nothing else in common with you but the moron."

This isn't the answer Sasuke was waiting for and hating (_'Well, while you were off being a bucket of angst with Orochimaru, Naruto and I-''_ for some reason, Sasuke can't get himself to finish the thought- well, because it's ridiculous, of course, and he has no time for idiocy), but the Uchiha discovers that he really doesn't like _this_ answer, either. How odd.

His lips curl into a smile. He likes the way Neji's umber lashes lower warily over his pearly eyes when he does this, like he's expecting the reply that follows because Sasuke's smiles always mean bad news. "How can that be, Hyuuga, when we're so much alike? We have so many similarities."

"Similarity breeds contempt."

"That's 'familiarity'."

"In our case, it's safe to say it's both. Stop tugging my hair."

"I'm not tugging your hair. I'm controlling the situation."

"By ripping up my scalp? And how am I a 'situation'?"

"Because you're annoying!"

Neji snorts. "Do you often kiss people who annoy you?"

"Do you often let deserters and traitors kiss you?"

They glare at each other.

"Answer the question."

"It was a stupid question."

"_Humour me._" Sasuke's tone tells Neji that Bad Things will befall him should he not. "How loyal are you _really_, Hyuuga." Another non-question. They're getting on Neji's nerves. Condescending, egotistical bastard.

"I'm not sure which answer you'd rather hear."

"Just answer the damn question!"

"Konoha has and will always have my total loyalty. Happy no-"

"-Liar." But Sasuke is- inexplicably- _smiling_. It makes Neji's flesh crawl and his spine shiver and stiffen. Suddenly his back is against one of the four canopy posts and the hand not tugging his head back by the hair (he remembers the first day and shudders) is pressed below his jaw, in the cup of his throat above his Adam's apple. He can feel his pulse against Sasuke's palm. Uchiha's dark eyes stare down at him from where he kneels between Neji's thighs, his face far too close again, his voice even closer in husky tones of self-confident pleasure.

"I will _make_ you disloyal. I'll tear down that flimsy hero's banner you've wrapped yourself in. You _will_ be loyal- to me."

But there is a difference between now and that first day- power. The next moment happens so swiftly Neji isn't even sure he had agreed with himself to do it. His hand- still resting on the Uchiha's pale stomach, his black shirt falling around his wrist- startles back a centimeter, pauses, curls, then _slams_ back, fingertips first, into Sasuke's gut. Chakra knifes under the skin and blasts toward internal organs, and Neji is out of the shroud of the bed, dark, semi-sheer bed curtains torn free of their anchors fluttering around him as he glances back once to find Sasuke doubled over with a look on his face like shock- and almost, _almost_, like betrayal. Then Neji is out of the room and down the hall, racing through the maze of corridors and hallways and dead-ends. The place is surprisingly barren, and though he meets three of Sasuke's Akatsuki on his way, they're dispatched with ridiculous ease and the next thing he knows he's outside. Sunrise is coming, and the east is alight with pinks and oranges shot through with blue sky, like fireworks celebrating his liberation. He takes to the trees, and within minutes the Akatsuki's hidden headquarters is too far behind him to see.

---

The high of his escape is still with him twenty minutes later when he notes the presence of three familiar chakra signatures headed in the direction he is coming from. He diverts his path to cross with theirs, and with the help of the Byakugan, he swiftly recognizes the distinctive forms of Sakura Haruno, Rock Lee, and Naruto Uzumaki. For some reason, instead of making him feel the great emotional welling he'd expected, this discovery only brings upon him relief that someone (assumedly Sasuke) had removed the notorious Akatsuki cloak from him before he'd escaped.

Sakura, of course, is the first to see him, and she makes an immediate beeline for him, calling his name above the rustling of leaves and thunking of feet on branches. Lee and Naruto are only an instant behind her, and all three of them have sped up at his arrival within view.

"Neji! I told the Hokage about your capture- Naruto, Lee, and I are here to retrieve you! Where are the Akatsuki?"

"Where's Sasuke?!" Naruto growls instantly, his fierce blue eyes taking in the mussed state of Neji's hair and clothes and the smudges of blood and dirt on his skin (he having never been offered a bath).

"**Neji!**" Lee catches him in a theatrically-tearful embrace the instant he's within reach, but Lee is anything but a liar, and Neji feels the compulsion to pat his shining bowl-cut comfortingly. To his dismay, this only makes Lee sniffle and squeeze harder.

"Sakura, Lee, Naruto," he greets in his usual business-like tone, meeting Sakura's pale green eyes and giving her a stare pregnant with unsaid things before continuing. "I've just retrieved _myself_ from the Akatsuki's base. The Uchiha was injured but will probably be recovering as we speak. As far as I know, he doesn't realize anyone has come to bring me back yet, so we shouldn't be follo-" at which point a kunai buries itself just where Lee had been standing to Neji's left. The four have already scattered, and so are easily separated when a group of six or more Akatsuki-cloaked, blank-masked ninja bore down on them. Neji prepares to defend himself against the two that have pursued him, but they do not attack, instead feinting at him to chase him further from the rest of the group.

"_**Sasuke-!**_" Naruto's voice, loud with alarm and fury and every ounce of Uzumaki's enviable passion. Neji hears no reply from the Uchiha except the chirping of a chidori-wielding blade as it slices through a thick tree trunk like butter. How had Sasuke recovered so quickly from having so many of his main chakra points blocked? Neji was sure he'd hit at least four with that strike, and right at his core, too- even the simple act of chasing them through the trees should've been slow and difficult, if not impossible. But from the sounds of things back in the main skirmish, Sasuke is having no trouble keeping up with Naruto and Sakura at once. It makes Neji deeply nervous, and that is something he greatly dislikes being.

Until this point, the Hyuuga has been dodging feints and swiping a few soft blows at the two Akatsuki before him, but now they're in his way, and he can't afford to be gentle any longer. One of them ducks a fist and comes at him from the right, driving low and at his legs to make him leap back. Neji's foot connects perfectly with the masked chin, and the head snaps back with a wet crunch. The second Akatsuki drops all attempts to stop him as he heads toward the main fight, instead following at a safe distance.

"-ruto, it's a compliment, dammit. Just accept." Sasuke's voice is frustrated and annoyed, but still insultingly casual as Neji nears close enough to hear the quieter half of the conversation.

"**You bastard! Like I'd ever join your damn Akatsuki!** You're no better than scum! You even kidnapped Neji!" Naruto, on the other hand, sounds a good deal less composed. Whatever Sasuke had 'complimented' had apparently struck Uzumaki as less than flattering.

"Sakura." The Uchiha's voice is suddenly velvet. "When I left, you said that you'd come with me; that you'd do anything for me."

Haruno's only response, as Neji finally comes close enough to see, is a punch that obliterates the branch Sasuke had been on into sawdust. Her face is fierce and unyielding. Naruto's is furious and flushed, his teeth bared and eyes wide. Sasuke, meanwhile, looks only frustrated and slightly confused- had he really thought convincing his former teammates of anything they didn't like- stubborn and steadfast as they were- would be so easy? And then, as he watches Sasuke leap and dodge and swing and dart, Neji understands. Sasuke is wearing kiddy-gloves for these two, intentionally avoiding harming them. _'Why..?'_ Because he wants them to join him, Neji realizes instantly. He knows and respects the power and dedication of his former friends and wants them in his Akatsuki, and therefore wants to keep them in good shape.

The very idea of Naruto giving up his life's dream and his vow to bring Sasuke back to go and frolic as the Uchiha's subordinate in a traitor group makes Neji want to laugh. Sasuke must be very blind indeed to Naruto and Sakura's determina- And then Neji sees something. Several yards away and coming in at Sasuke very fast through the shadows is a familiar figure- Lee. The bandages on his arms are already partly undone in preparation for his attack. The Uchiha- busy keeping both Naruto and Sakura at bay while simultaneously avoiding harming them- has not noticed him.

_'He's gotten rid of the others already?!'_ the Hyuuga thinks in surprise, and the next moment he finds himself back to back with Sasuke, and his palm is on Lee's chest and there's blood dribbling past his lips and his big black eyes are wider and rounder than usual with shock. Faintly, as if from a great distance, Neji hears a gasp. He thinks it's Sakura. Lee slips backward, away from Neji's hand, and his expression of frozen shock and utter bewilderment doesn't change as he falls from the branch. It's surreal, watching him fall, watching Lee watch him back as he plummets in slow-motion toward the ground. Then Lee is gone, and it feels like ages of staring wildly around before Neji finds Naruto leaping away through the trees with his comrade on his back, Sakura half a step behind them and trying to look at Lee's chest as they move.

Neji feels a hand on his arm, pulling him gingerly, and he follows without resistance, head turned to watch his teammates' progress as they flee through the forest until they're out of sight, and then he stares blankly ahead. Sasuke's eyes burn into him, but his heated hand is still gentle on his arm.

Neji is grateful for the guidance, but confused- why isn't Sasuke fighting him, or wrestling him into submission, or using his Sharingan- ahhh. Yes, that's it. Sasuke _has_ used his Sharingan on him. That would explain everything- this muted feeling of befuddlement, his docile following, how he's lost part of the fight when normally his memory is so _good_. One minute Lee had been about to take Uchiha out with a crippling taijutsu barrage, and then he and the others were suddenly retreating like the ANBU were on their heels and Lee was on Naruto's back.

Neji considers himself an intelligent and battle-savvy fellow, but even he can't understand how a situation with such an obvious outcome could end so strangely. He wonders if he should- _can_ ask Sasuke, and blames it on the clear Sharingan mind-tampering when he decides to do so.

"...What happened? Just now?"

Sasuke's feet pause for just a split-second on the limb, but they're close enough together that it's enough to almost make Neji run into him.

"...You tell me," he replies finally, and it's as if he really wants an answer. His confusion deepens into frustration.

_'Eccentric bastard.'_

Neji really doesn't understand Sasuke at all.


	4. Chapter 4

I want to give lots of gratitude to the people who read Theory of Percussion way back when and are patient and forgiving enough to be letting me drag your eyeballs back to it after such a ridiculous break. Much love and thanks to you all.

As always, dedicated to the people who faved, watched, alerted, or commented. I'm very grateful to all of you and I hope you continue to enjoy ToP!

(For more info on ToP and its current update status, please check out my profile page.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neji does not expect it when, slowly, he comes to realize he's in what he assumes to be Sasuke's room again. He realizes also that he's been here for some time, sitting in one of the cramped wing-backed chairs and staring into space, thoughtless and listless. He glances around, but somehow his eyes move instantly to the foot of the bed, as if they know that is exactly where Sasuke is sitting, cross-legged and straight-backed between the tatters of the bed curtains. He's staring right back at him, unblinking and unsmiling, his face more quiet and serious than Neji has yet seen it. It makes something heavy and cold squirm down his throat with difficulty and drop into the pit of his stomach, sending goosebumps over his skin.

-Quite a lot of which, he notices, is not covered.

He looks down at his shirtless chest in bemusement; examines the unbuttoned state of his pants; leans over to stare at his feet, relieved of their sandals (his forehead, he's happy to note, is still covered). His bare white toes flexing against the dark red carpet look like maggots on a corpse. Uchiha's, he imagines.

"I seem to be somewhat naked," he states neutrally, and steadies his gaze on Sasuke, who- to his leery shock- widens his dark eyes in a Bambi-esque gesture of innocent surprise and doesn't reply for a long moment.

"...You do."

They stare at each other.

"I'd like some clothes." Watching the Uchiha's big black eyes bat at him rapidly, Neji begins to hope he won't have to hold Sasuke's hand through this whole request. Proverbially speaking, of course.

"-To wear, you know."

"Why..?"

Now it's Neji's turn to blink and stare in bewilderment. Somehow, he feels admitting that showing so much bare, vulnerable skin (if any inch of skin on a Hyuuga can be vulnerable) to Sasuke Uchiha, (missing-nin extraordinaire and betrayer of the Leaf Village, last of the deadly Uchiha clan, et cetera, et cetera) is making him uncomfortable would be unwise. If there's anything he's learned from this experience, it's that Sasuke is twice as unpredictable and at least three times as moody as he recalled him being at the Chuunin exams- not to mention how much more easily the Uchiha could send him to an early and likely painful grave.

"What do you mean _'why'_? I want clo-"

He's cut off by an annoyed wave of the Uchiha's pale hand, Sasuke's face still stony but quickly becoming stiffer in a way that told Neji it was time to give him what he wanted. Whatever that was.

"I wasn't talking about that. I meant your Lee. Why did you hit him," he growls throatily, eyeing Neji with what the Hyuuga is coming to realize is uncertainty beneath all the gruff anger.

...Hit Lee? _Rock_ Lee..? One side of Neji's nose wrinkles up in a bewildered, unhappy expression.

"Uchi-"

"_**Why?!**_"

The echoes of Sasuke's roar are punctuated by a fist in Neji's chest, punching him back into his chair and knocking the breath out of him before the Uchiha lifts him by the front of his open pants and a grip around his throat.

"_Uchiha! __**Calm**__ the fuck __**down**__ and tell me what you're talking about!_" Neji barks, tensing his legs to kick chakra into Sasuke's gut if he starts to squeeze his throat. But Sasuke just holds him there against the wall, glaring and looking for all the world like a befuddled child. After a long moment, he starts to speak.

"You escaped," he begins flatly, and Neji makes a low noise of impatience.

"Yes, I reca-" Sasuke's cold stare cuts him off, and it's clear that the leniency he had allowed before the escape attempt is gone now. Neji goes quiet, and stays quiet as Sasuke's low voice continues in a neutral deadpan, though his eyes are burningly frigid.

"Sakura, Naruto, and Rock Lee were found with you in the forest. My men attempted to return you to the base unharmed, but you resisted-" some small shred of strain worms its way into his voice on the last word, as if he is fighting down some burst of emotion, but it's gone before Neji can decipher it- "and proceeded to join the main fight. I had assumed it was to assist Sakura and Naruto." Sasuke goes silent, observing him stonily, and Neji- after several moments of expectant waiting- deduces that he's done explaining.

"...One would assume, then, that I would be in Konoha right now," Neji says at length, shifting in an attempt to lessen the pressure on his throat. He gives Sasuke a stiff stare, which the dark-eyed boy returns just as flatly.

"And not here, with y-"

"You hit Lee."

This again.

But for a brief moment, for reasons beyond the Hyuuga's understanding, Neji believes him. And then he remembers.

He remembers Sasuke standing straight-backed and calm on his branch, raising his hands lightly in preparation to count an oncoming attack by Naruto. He remembers the concise, graceful movements of his fingers through the air, long and slender and bone-white, and the way his dark hair ruffled slowly across his pale cheek as he began to turn fleetly on the pads of his feet. And he remembers the green blur that was Lee shredding through the air toward him, and just then, how Sasuke's head turned and something about the calm set of his lips and dark wings of his lashes over his skin had Neji seeing white, pupil-less eyes beneath his half-lowered lids and long blue-black hair, and that serene look on her face when she bent to pour him tea and the shift of her kimono over her collarbone that made her look so frail. And then all he could see was Lee's face, close to his, blank and stunned, sliding out of view as his knees buckled beneath him and he fell away from Neji's outstretched palm. The rest of the memory- Sasuke tugging him along, sharply dismissing his men as they reached the base, leading him to his room and pushing him into a chair, awkwardly loosening his shirt from his pants, pacing away toward the bed, pausing, and then returning to stiffly remove the majority of his clothes, glaring at the Hyuuga the whole time- is dazed and distant, as if he's watching someone else's memories and not his own.

Sasuke- the Sasuke of the present, the one here and now, in flesh and blood- is watching him warily, lowering him back to the floor and dropping the hand from around his throat- the fingers curled into the unbuttoned front of his pants remain, as if he's leery of Neji suddenly attacking him again and attempting another escape.

"...Well," he says after a moment, his voice irritated and ever so slightly uncertain, "you hit him, didn't you?"

Neji's surprised that it's actually a question this time (the Uchiha seems so indisposed toward asking things), but at the same time he knows what he's really saying is _'Why?'_. He feels his jaw flex uncomfortably, and he raises his chin a fraction, his spine so straight against the wall that he can feel his vertebrae digging into the stone.

"It wasn't intentional."

And they both know he doesn't mean hitting Lee. _That_ was quite clearly intentional.

It's Sasuke's turn to go stiffer, his lips tightening thinly and his dark brows beginning to curl down. Neji can feel his knuckles beginning to press the buttons of his pants uncomfortably hard into his abdomen. But his voice is very, very calm.

"...Well?"

"-Hinata. I was moving quickly to outrun your subordinates and clearly the chakra loss and injuries sustained in our last battle were affecting me and I thought I saw... Hinata." He runs his tongue over his teeth tensely, disliking how even with some of his chakra back he's acting like Sasuke's dog to keep from getting a Sharingan brain-melting.

Sasuke, meanwhile, has gone so stony and unreadable that Neji suspects he isn't sure how to take this information. And then promptly hates how easily he's coming to understand the Uchiha's body language. He's nothing like Sasuke. Not where it counts.

-----

Sasuke remembers Hinata, vaguely, after much thought on the matter. She was a shy, quiet, unobtrusive girl with a stuttering problem who had sat in the back in Iruka's genin class. More importantly, though, she was horrendously weak. Pathetically weak. He hadn't paid her much mind, and had certainly never considered her a threat, nor anyone he would want to be close to (not that he _wanted_ to be close to people in general). She was a liability- worse than Sakura had been- and he couldn't even recall much of her appearance beyond short hair and shapeless clothes, hunched shoulders and nervous little steps (because this was before he'd realized the importance of details, and her terrified insistence on making herself as invisible as possible had made her even less memorable than most of them). But her name on Hyuuga's tongue was a tender breath, wistful and wanting, and it makes Sasuke realize that she obviously hadn't been so invisible to _everyone_.

"-You love her," he says suddenly, and his abrupt voice- louder and more startled than he'd meant to allow it to be- echoing in the confines of the stone brings to sudden clarity that they'd been hovering in front of each other against the wall for several minutes without saying anything. Sasuke becomes aware of the rather unnecessary location of his hand on the Hyuuga's crotch and removes it, instead putting his palms against the wall on either side of Neji's chest.

The Hyuuga blinks his impenetrable white eyes at him, his loose hair scraggly and dirty and tumbling around his face in tangled strings.

"...Of course."

They stand there quietly for a few more moments as Hyuuga waits for Sasuke to get to the point and Sasuke wonders why he said anything and why Hyuuga felt compelled to reply with such calm confidence, as if stating that yes, of course I breathe, you fool, isn't it _obvious_? And then Hyuuga clears his throat delicately, as if to carefully change the subject.

"My clothes, Uchiha?" An awkward pause. "..._Please_."

Sasuke grunts and pushes off the wall, turning away to the door.

"They're on the floor. Over there."

He stops, doorknob in hand, and says with intently bland pointedness, "The bath is down the hall to the right." The dark look those pale eyes burn into his back as he closes the door behind him makes him feel better, and he saunters down the hall with the unquestionably arrogant spring in his step of a predator that has just one-upped his prey.


End file.
